A Thoughtful Response to Some Serious Bullshit

Republicans seem to be just crawling over each other to say the most offensive thing about rape and rape victims lately, most recently Richard Mourdock's comments that pregnancies resulting from rape are a gift from God (note: That link is to a theological analysis, not a political one, though I can provide that too if anyone needs it.) So I really enjoyed reading this reflection from a former Army Chaplain on the problems that a theology of omniscience and omnipotence create in horrible situations like rape.

“The God that I know would never, never, never punish any conceivable sin with rape.”

There are reasons that I am no longer a Southern Baptist, and they are not social or political reasons.  They are theological.  While I will defend to the death their right to be wrong, I came to the belief that the theological premises of conservative and fundamentalist Christianity are not only damaging, but wrong.  These theological errors lead people away from the compassion that I believe was at the heart of the message of that poor carpenter from a little village in Galilee.

I'm writing a paper about redemption and atonement right now, so I've been thinking about issues like these a lot, and while I'm not really a theist so Rev. David's analysis doesn't quite do it for me personally, I agree with the problems he identifies. And the story he tells about standing up to his colleagues who were shaming a rape victim is quite moving. So if you're interested in this theology stuff, I definitely recommend that you check out the whole thing!